Disintegrating apparatus



J. H. KENNEDY ET AL Aug. 13, 1940.

DISINTEGRATING APPARATUS Filed June 2, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l Aug. 13, 1940. J H. KENNEDY ET AL 2,211,570

DISINTEGRATING APPARATUS Filed June 2, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Patented Aug. 13, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DISIN TEGRATIN G APPARATUS Application June 2, 1938, Serial No. 211,382

7 Claims.

This invention pertains to disintegration or deoonglomeration apparatus, and more particularly, to apparatus for breaking up conglomerate masses of materials by intimate concussive impact.

In one aspect, our invention applies particularly to apparatus for disintegrating conglomerates with a minimum of grinding that will be suitable for releasing precious minerals or precious or semi-precious stones or particles from heterogeneous masses such as are obtained at placer mine locations. The term placer mine as employed here refers to a known or discovered deposit of land where heavier precious metals or precious or semi-precious stones are known to exist in physical combination and/ or as free particles with an aggregate such as sand, silt, clay, quartz, loam, etc.

We found that an ordinary disintegrator apparatus could not be successfully employed for heavier separating, such as particularly contemplated in the recovery of gold and other valuable mineral or semi-precious materials. We found that there is an extremely rapid wear on the parts thereof. Obviously, the replacement of a cage is an expensive operation not only as to cost but also as to time lost in the changeover. The wearresistant quality of the pins was limited by the fact that they had to be riveted to their respective cage flanges.

In view of the above considerations, it has been an object of our invention to provide a new and improved apparatus for the purposes enumerated.

Another object of our invention has been to provide a disintegrating apparatus that can be readily adapted to the individual requirements of the user.

Another object has been to devise a disintegrating apparatus having increased efficiency of operation and/or whose maintenance is relatively inexpensive.

A further object of our invention has been to provide a disintegrating or similar apparatus having replaceable wear-resisting parts that may be designed for the particular requirements of the user.

These and many other objects of our invention will appear to those skilled in the art from the description thereof taken in view of the drawings and the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal view in elevation, partiallyin section, of a disintegrating unit constructed in accordance with our invention;

Figure 2 is a partial vertical cross-sectional view taken along the line IIII of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged side View in elevation showing a detail of the apparatus of Figures 1 and 2;

Figure 4 is an end sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of Figure 3; and

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 4 but showing a different detail.

We have discovered that there is a need for a disintegrating or similar type of unit that can be readily adapted for employment in connection with a number of different types of requirements. That is, in one aspect, our invention deals with an apparatus of the type in question that may be readily adapted to meet the particular needs of a particular situation. For example, even if it is assumed that a given unit is to be employed for the breaking up of conglomerates such as encountered in placer mining, it is apparent that the nature of the conglomerates varies greatly for different localities and/or depths of source materials. It is also apparent that a disintegrator may be employed for a number of uses, for example, in the conditioning of ceramic materials, mineral conglomerates, etc. However, for the purpose of illustrating the present invention, the applicants will particularly discuss apparatus embodying the features thereof from the standpoint of separation or disintegration of materials such as found at placer mine locations.

We have discovered that in the operation of a disintegrator, for example, in the disintegrating of conglomerates by intimate concussive impact upon masses with a minimum of grinding, that the greatest and most rapid wear on the cage pins was of two classifications: the first occurred on the inside and outside surface of inside cage pins and on the inside surface of outside cage pins; the second classification of wear was that which occurred to a less extent on the leading surface of pins of both cages. Analyses indicated that wear on the leading surface was due to pure impact and that excessive wear on tangential surfaces was due to a grinding action of material that did not immediately pass through the cages. We have been able in our present development to largely eliminate wear on the inside of the inside cage by increasing the free space between pins in the outside cage and by eliminating a stationary bar from the inside cage.

Obviously, the replacement of a cage such as 20 or 21 of Figure 1 of the drawings is an expensive operation, not only as to first cost but as to the time lost in the operation. We found that they wear-resistant quality of the pins extending from the cages was limited by reason of the fact that they necessarily had to be riveted or securely and rigidly attached to their respective support or cage flanges. We have thus developed a wear shoe 24 or 24 for pins such as 22 or 22' of inside and outside cages 2i) and 2!, respectively, that is easily replaceable and that can be cast or fabricated from materials giving properties suitable for disintegration, and if desired, for grinding of particular conglomerates. The shoes can thus be made of materials suitable for the work at hand. Where made of manganese steel (which is unmachineable) they are used in disintegrating conglomerates or materials having suflicient stone and rock content to give surface impact and the surface hardening that manganese steel requires under this type of action. Where used in disintegrating materials having mostly sand and clay characteristics, they are preferably made of some suitable metal such as white iron, or one of the heat-treated chrome steels which are resistant to abrasion (grinding) without impact. Under the latter conditions, manganese steelwould Wear, for the impact is not enough to give the desired surface hardening thereof. It will be apparent that other suitable metals or materials may be employed in the manufacture of wearing shoes 24 or 25, depending upon the particular type of requirement.

Referring to the apparatus of the drawings, l represents a casing or housing of a unit. The dis-integrator has a feed chute or hopper ll adjacent one side thereof opening into an inner cage 20 and discharging at the lower end of the housing H! through a discharge hopper l2. We preferably provide at least a pair of squirrel cages 2!! and 2|, one of which is mounted in a cooperating and preferably inside telescopic relationship with respect to the other.

Each cage is provided, as shown particularly in Figures 1 and 2, with a plurality of circumferentially secured and outwardly projecting pins or bars 22. For the purpose of simplifying the description of the apparatus, wehave designated similar parts of the two cages by similar numerals, differentiating between them by prime suffixes.

Referring particularly to Figure 3, the bars or pins 22 or 22 extend from a back disc-like portion of the cage tO'a front cylindrical-band portion and are preferably secured thereto by counter sunk rivet pins 23 or 23. Since as previously explained, the primary or greatest wear is upon the inside surface portions of the pins 22 of the outside cage 2|, and upon the outside portions of the pins 22 of the inner cage 20, we have been able to provide removable wearing shoes which extend substantially 180 about the pins and which are open to one side thereof for ready removal. That is, as shown in Figure 4, the shoes 24' are mounted in such a manner that they protect the pins 22' from the greater proportion of wear; as shown in Figures 3, 4, and 5, mouth or open portions of the wear shoes 2 will preferably extend oppositely to the proposed direction of rotation of the outercage; and, where mounted over the inner pins 22 of the inner cage 20, will be open opposite to the direction. of rotation of the inner cage, and will extend in a direction substantially opposite to that of those mounted on the outer cage 2|, see Figures 4 and 5.

Although the wear shoes of the inner and outer pins 22 and 22 respectively, maybe of different materials, for general use we preferably employ the same materials; and in such a case, the only difference between the two shoes 24 and 24' is one of length, since the shorter ones will be mounted on the inside pins 22 of the inside cage 20.

The wearing shoes are preferably of semicircular cylindrical section having skirts projecting a short distance tangentially from two edges thereof slightly less than 180 apart. It is apparent that they may be readily slipped over the circular disintegrating pins 22 to provide a covering backing therefor. For mounting the shoes 24, we provide laterally outwardly extending flanges 25 having a countersunk hole therein for receiving a suitable securing means such as an ordinary bolt 26. As the bolts are necessarily of softer material, we prefer to countersink them in order to protect them from wear to which they would ordinarily be subjected. Since the shoes are made of suitable extremely hard or wearresistant material, in many cases it is preferable to cast the bolt hole in place during manufacture.

We have found that wear on the shoes is greater adjacent one end thereof during the operation of the apparatus; for this reason, we have esigned the shoes 24 and 24' in such a manner that their right and left end portions may be reversed in position on a given pin, thus increasing the life of the shoes manifold. That is, we have found that as the wearing shoes are symmetrical, the greatest wear takes place either on the outside leading surface of the inside cage or the inside leading surface of the outside cage.

The operation of removing the shoes and/or of reversing them is relatively simple and is preferably accomplished by opening up a door in the side of the housing In (not shown) and employing a suitable socket wrench.

We also prefer to reinforce or protect inside wall portions of the disintegrator housing l0 and to shape them in such a manner as to suitably direct the materials towards the outlet l2. We have been able to increase the efficiency of the unit by confining and/or guiding reinforcements in the housing, and to increase the desired type of disintegration of deconglomeration. Plates M and [6 are shown as suitably secured such as by rivets I! to side flange or angle pieces l9 secured to and extending outwardly from inner portions of the housing H1; in like manner the top and side plate portions [3 and Hi respectively are secured directly to the walls of the housing It].

In operating the device, the cages 20 and 2! are preferably rotated in opposite directions by their respective shafts 28 and 28 to which they are feathered or suitably secured by mount sleeves 21 and 2?, respectively. A sleeve 21a protects the shaft 28 adjacent the inner mount sleeve 27, as shown particularly in Figure 1. The shafts 28 are journaled in bearings 3| and carry suitable drive wheels such as belt wheels 2.) and 28. The drive is preferably a variable sheave rope belt drive and the mechanism is preferably operated in such a manner that disintegration takes place substantially by impact when auriferous materials are being disintegrated. Materials fed to the inside of the smallest cage 20 are struck by the moving bars of this cage as it passes outwardly. The bars 22 of the outer cage 2! revolve in the opposite direction and strike blows upon the projected particles of the materials. Since no particle follows the same directional path, it is apparent that there is a tremendous internal mass impact. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, tubular openings l8 in casing E53 permit the ready insertion of a socket wrench for replacement and/or a changeover of the shoes 24 and 2 3'. The openings or holes [8 permit the removal of nuts or pin liner bolts without the necessity of removing side plates of the casing or housing; the holes are located on the same radius as the respective cages and opposite one another.

We have discovered that impact must be intimate with particles through the mass and that grinding of the stones and sand is not required. Speaking particularly of the recovery of auriferous materials, although the conglomerates are often hard, they are also friable and brittle and may be disintegrated by such concussive impact s obtained by a man rubbing the material between his bare hands. We preferably control the rotation of the respective drive shafts 28 and 28' independently so as to provide desired speed relationships between the inner and outer cages. Additional cages can be mounted on the same shafts if required.

We have also drven both cages of the disintegrator from one side of the housing; this design is of particular value Where close clearance is paramount on one side and multicage disintegration is being used. For example, both drives may be from left side of the unit shown in Figure 1, one shaft 28 being rotatable within the other shaft 28', and both shafts extending in the same direction from their respective cages.

From the above description, it will be apparent that we have been able to eliminate unnecessary wear such as by grinding, to concentrate wear at particular portions of the pins which are, in effect. reinforced or protected, and also to quickly and inexpensively replace and/ or reverse wearing surfaces without the need of replacing expensive parts of the apparatus. In some cases the shoes may completely take the place of the bars or pins; however, at least some circumferentially-spaced bars are desirable to rigidly support the ring and cage construction. And, although we have for the purpose of illustration shown a preferred form of arrangement of our invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many other suitable arrangements, combinations, substitutions, subtractions, and/or additions may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as indicated in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A disintegrator unit for breaking up materials comprising a housing, a rotatable means operably mounted in said housing, disintegrator bars securely mounted on said rotatable means and extending therefrom, wear shoes having flange means at end portions thereof for removably securing them to said rotatable means and over said disintegrator bars, said shoes having an open side portion along their respective lengths of sufficient width to permit their transverse removal from the bars over which they are positioned.

2. A disintegrator unit for breaking up materials comprising a housing, a substantially planar rotating member such as a disc or ring operably mounted in said housing, at least one disintegrator bar securely mounted on said member and extending substantially perpendicularly to the operating plane thereof and within a plane defining outer peripheral portions of said member, a wear shoe, and means removably mounting said shoe on said disintegrator bar in such a manner that said shoe may be removed without dismounting said bar, said wear shoe having a portion partially encompassing said bar and being open along a longitudinal side thereof of a width sufficient to permit a transverse removal of said shoe from said bar.

3. A disintegrator unit for breaking up materials comprising a housing, a pair of spaced-apart rotatable members operably mounted in said housing, disintegrator bars securely mounted on said rotatable members and extending therebetween, wear shoes having end portions for removably securing them to said rotatable members and on said disintegrator bars and extending between said rotatable members, each of said shoes having a longitudinal closed portion encompassing a corresponding bar and a longitudinal open side portion along its length of sufficient width to permit its transverse removal from the corresponding bar on which it is positioned.

4. A disintegrator unit for breaking up materials comprising a housing, a pair of cages operably mounted in said housing, one of said cages being mounted substantially within the other of said cages, means for rotating said cages relative to each other, bars securely mounted on and extending outwardly from said cages within said housing for breaking up the materials, and substantially U-shaped wear shoes mounted over portions of said bars subjected to the greatest wear, said wear shoes being removably mounted with respect to said cages and being secured independently of said bars, said Wear shoes being mounted with the closed portions of their U-shape pointing in the direction of rotation of their respective cages and being constructed and mounted for transverse removal from said bars.

5. A disintegrator unit for breaking up materials comprising a housing, spaced-apart rotatable members of substantially planar outline, disinte grator bars securely mounted on said members and extending across the spacing therebetwe'en, at least one wear shoe, means removably mounting said shoe on at least one of said disintegrator bars and between said spaced-apart rotatable members in such a manner that said shoe may be removed without dismounting said bar, said wear shoe having a portion partially encompassing said bar and being open along a longitudinal side thereof of a width sufficient to permit a transverse removal of said shoe from said bar.

6. A unit as defined in claim wherein the portion partially encompassing said bar or said wear shoe is mounted to face in the direction of rotation of said rotatable members.

'7. A disintegrator unit for breaking up materials comprising a housing, a spaced-apart pair of substantially planar rotatable members operably mounted in said housing, disintegrator bars securely mounted upon said members and extending therebetween, wear shoes each having a portion encompassing a corresponding bar, means removably mounting each of said shoes to extend between said rotatable members and to partially encompass its corresponding disintegrator bar in such a manner that said shoes may be removed without dismounting said bars, said shoes having an open side portion along their respective lengths of sufficient width to permit their transverse removal from the bars on which they are positioned.

JAMES H. KENNEDY. ROSCOE F. BALLARD. 

